The Borough Mayor, Cllr Lesley Bambridge, hosted a large group of foreign students and their teachers, visiting the town under the EU Erasmus+ student exchange programme. 

The visit, under the EU funded programme, involved 25 students from a wide range of countries including Germany, France, Croatia, North Macedonia and Italy and is an introduction to the wider programme, which has been running since 1987, where students are offered the possibility of studying or doing an internship abroad, for a period of at least 2 months and maximum 12 months per cycle of studies.

Springwood High School are the lead for the programme in this area, with Tammy Churchyard,  the schools head of Computer Science, and Dniel Manu being the visit coordinators, who have planned a busy week for all involved,

The week's activities started with the visit to Trinity Guildhall, where they were introduced to the Mayor, who then gave them a guided tour of the historic building. The visit culminated with the presentation, by the Mayor, of commemorative Queen’s Jubilee coins to each of the students. Visit coordinator Tammy Churchyard said “ it was a real honour for the group to meet the Mayor and to leave with the wonderful surprise gift of the Jubilee coins, something I am sure they will all treasure.”

The visit to the Guildhall was followed by an historic town tour by Town Guide, Gary Walker, who said “there was a great deal of interest in the town from the group, with some coming from the German cities of Hamburg and Lubeck, who were particularly interested in the town’s historic trading links with the continent through the Hansa League.”

The group were  exposed to a variety of aspects of life in King's Lynn culminating in a visit to the Corn Exchange. As part of their experiences, they learnt about traditions such as "afternoon tea", textiles, art, hair and beauty treatments, care of the elderly and the overaarching benefits of technology. The staff visited Sndringham and the group experienced life in Cambridge with a punting trip and tour of the colleges. 

Each of the students is being accommodated with a fellow student from Springwood, with all involved getting the chance to take part in a reciprocal visit to the continent later in the year.